Computers, such as PCs (personal computers), are increasingly becoming media focal points that provide users with numerous entertainment options involving various media types. For example, PCs are commonly used to access digital music over the Internet, and to organize, playback, and transfer the digital music to various storage media and playback devices according to a user's desires. Video content can be similarly managed using PCs. This evolution of PCs into home entertainment centers has more recently expanded to include TV (television) media as an entertainment option that is accessible through the PC.
In general, there are various ways to access TV media, including for example, through terrestrial broadcast systems, cable broadcast systems, and satellite broadcast systems. In a terrestrial system, a rooftop antenna can pick up digital and/or analog TV signals broadcast by a TV station. An analog tuner in a TV coupled to the antenna can tune to particular broadcast frequencies, allowing a user to experience the media carried by the various analog broadcast TV signals/channels. Likewise, a TV set with a digital tuner enables tuning to frequencies carrying digital TV signals. A set-top box (STB) or receiver may also receive digital or analog signals from a satellite, a cable, or a terrestrial source. The STB may tune in digital signals (e.g., in ATSC format) and convert them to analog signals (e.g., in NTSC, PAL, or SECAM format), and send the analog signals to a TV at a particular frequency (e.g., 60-MHz (channel 3) or 66-MHz (channel 4)) that can be tuned to with an analog TV tuner. In this case, a user changes channels by adjusting the STB tuner while leaving the TV tuned to the channel output by the STB. An STB or receiver might also output the TV signal in a digital format such as DVB (Digital Video Broadcasting) or ATSC (Advanced Television Systems Committee). A TV (e.g., an HDTV) with a digital tuner then allows a user to experience the media carried by the TV signal.
As signal broadcast standards have evolved, so too have the standards for signal connectors. Thus, TV devices and components (e.g., VCRs, set-top boxes, TVs, PC tuner cards, etc.) typically include an array of cable, antenna, and auxiliary hardware connector types for input ports to interconnect different signals from various components. Accordingly, a TV set or a tuner card for a PC may have multiple input ports, such as RF, composite, S-Video and component inputs, to accommodate a variety of scenarios. Newly built set-top boxes typically have S-Video outputs, while set-top boxes built 5 years ago may only have a composite video output. A tuner card likely includes the necessary input ports to accommodate both the newer and older set-top boxes. Accordingly, there are a variety of ways in which components may be interconnected depending on the signal type and source that a user is using to access TV media.
The variety of signal types, formats, sources, interconnects, and so on, can be problematic for users who need to configure one or more tuners with respect to their current TV signal source (e.g., cable service, direct broadcast satellite). Users typically do not encounter such tuner setup problems with certain OEM devices such as set-top boxes, personal video recorders, or VCRs, because the OEM of such a device knows the number and types of tuners in the device, and has already preconfigured TV signals and tuners within such devices appropriately. However, with PCs, different OEMs may provide a variety of different tuner configurations. Furthermore, PC users may add tuners, remove tuners, switch tuners, or move tuners to different slots within PCs. Thus, for PCs and other devices that may have a variety of different tuner configurations, the signal/tuner setup experience in these devices can be very complicated for the average PC user because of the variety of signal types, formats, sources, and interconnects. Typical setup questions that may be difficult for an average user to answer during a signal/tuner setup procedure might include, for example, what broadcast standard should be selected (e.g., NTSC, PAL, SECAM, DVB, ATSC), how many tuners should be configured for the selected broadcast standard, what connector type is the TV signal connected to (e.g., RF, Composite Video, S-Video, Component), and how the TV signal is being provided (e.g., an antenna, cable provider, set-top box). As PCs continue to evolve into entertainment hubs that seek to provide users with ever increasing options for viewing and recording different TV signals from different TV media sources, setting up TV signals and tuners will only become more and more complex and time consuming.
Accordingly, a need exists for a way of setting up TV signals and tuners in environments where a variety of different tuner configurations may exist, such as in a PC that is enhanced for home entertainment.